Yeah, pretty much what I figured.
On the heels of xannoside 's post, and my response to it, evidence of what I was talking about. With numbers and everything. Non-lethal weapons may decrease the numbers of deaths in violent confrontations, but they increase the numbers of incidents that use force, period. Suddenly, you've got a lot of people being harmed who might not otherwise have been. It's problem.
So's this:
Understanding the psychology of policing is also very important, said Dunham.
“In their culture, it’s important to have authority. Most policemen will say that the only thing they have to protect them is authority, and they’re very sensitive to people who do not respect their authority,” he said. “When an officer gets on the scene, the number-one thing they’re supposed to do is take control” - and that dynamic is heightened when they know that other police will judge their actions.
Though I am equally troubled by the notion that policemen and women are thinking of how they'll be judged by their peers rather than by the people whom they serve (also: troubled that, in the estimation of police, acting with less force is the thing they perceive their colleagues will like less), I think the bolded portion makes me most nervous. The vast majority of people do respect, and, I think, even fear the police. The fact that respect is policed so heavily should worry everyone.
So's this:
Understanding the psychology of policing is also very important, said Dunham.
“In their culture, it’s important to have authority. Most policemen will say that the only thing they have to protect them is authority, and they’re very sensitive to people who do not respect their authority,” he said. “When an officer gets on the scene, the number-one thing they’re supposed to do is take control” - and that dynamic is heightened when they know that other police will judge their actions.
Though I am equally troubled by the notion that policemen and women are thinking of how they'll be judged by their peers rather than by the people whom they serve (also: troubled that, in the estimation of police, acting with less force is the thing they perceive their colleagues will like less), I think the bolded portion makes me most nervous. The vast majority of people do respect, and, I think, even fear the police. The fact that respect is policed so heavily should worry everyone.